Yamashita leads after stunning 65 at Women's Open

AIG Women's Open 2025 - second round leaderboard

-11 Yamashita (Jpn); -8 Takeda (Jpn)

Selected others

-2 Harry (Wal), Korda (US), Woad (Eng); -1 Nordqvist (Swe); E G Hall (Eng); +2 Ko (NZ); +7 Vu (US)

Full leaderboard

Japan's Miyu Yamashita shot a bogey-free 65 in her second round to take a commanding lead of the AIG Women's Open at Royal Porthcawl.

Yamashita was among those to take advantage of the slightly calmer conditions in south Wales on Friday morning, with wind speeds expected to increase during the afternoon.

England's Lottie Woad looked on course to post a similar score in her second round before a triple-bogey seven on the par-four 16th derailed her progress.

The 21-year-old eventually finished with a two-under 70, leaving her nine shots behind the leader.

Yamashita, who turns 24 years old on Saturday, birdied her first two holes and picked up four more shots around the turn.

Her seventh birdie of the day at the last wrapped up the lowest round of the tournament so far and set the clubhouse target at 11 under par.

Rio Takeda, playing in the same three-ball as Yamashita, followed Thursday's round of 67 with a three-under 69 on Friday to lie eight under for the championship.

Elsewhere, Australia's Steph Kyriacou hit the first hole-in-one of this year's tournament at the par-three eighth.

The cut mark is expected to be either level par or one over, meaning defending champion Lydia Ko - at two over after a second straight round of 73 - may not have done enough to take part in the final two rounds.

World number one Nelly Korda will make the cut, though, as a level-par 72 left her at two under for the tournament.

Farnham-born Woad, the pre-tournament favourite, shot a level-par 72 in her opening round but had charged into the top five with three holes of her second round to play.

After five straight pars to start, Woad made six birdies and one bogey across the next 10 holes.

Then, all of her positive momentum was halted on the par-four 16th:

After that setback, Woad made two solid pars to finish.

"I think it's probably the toughest hole on the course," Woad said after her round.

"The tee shot is hard to hit the fairway and then you've got a three-wood into a very strong wind. Anything that's missing the target is going to be exaggerated.

"So I pushed it and got a pretty unlucky lie. It wasn't too thick around there apart from where I was, so I couldn't really do much with that."

Asked about her second round as a whole after a tough opening day, she added: "I'd certainly take it [two under par] now, but not when I was standing on the 16th tee.

"I've just got to try to play well over the weekend. The leaderboard is pretty packed so I can move up a bit."